Agreed on bureaucracy. Bureaucracy and the imbalance of power is rampant in the U.S., and it concerns me. I don't know if people ever did, but it really feels like nobody gives a shit about their customers or citizens, as far as companies and the U.S. government, respectively, are concerned.
Last year, through a fluke since I ended up being away from my apartment for several months, I found out my gas company had incorrectly installed the gas meters in my apartment. Thus, I had been paying the upstairs neighbors' gas bill (and vice versa) for over five years. It took 7-9 months to get the thousands of dollars they owed me. And that was after basically calling them every two weeks, going through no-shows of their technicians, and arguing with them that they needed to go back the entire time I had overpaid. They wanted to only go back two or three years because that's only how much data they kept. Which fuck that, because after arguing about it, they were somehow magically able to go back the full duration of my account with them, "finding" the data. We literally hunted for a house and bought one in the in-between time of discovering the issue and getting my money. Can you imagine being able to tell some company you owe money to "I'll get it to you when I get to it, I'm really busy right now" or that "well, my records only go back so far, so I can't do anything about money I owe you before a certain time"? You'd be submitted to a credit agency and completely wrecked.
In this and more of these scenarios, it is absolutely the most remote possibility that you can act like this towards companies and the government when they want something from you. It really bothers me to my core that we have no power against companies or government. This is what it's like to live in an oligarchy.
Well...maybe. I will say USG is super on top of their shit when it comes to passports overseas. Total adhesion to protocol, and well thought out protocol at that, I have to recognize that in the face of your accusation of incompetence. You could be right too, not saying you're not. But I feel obliged to vindicate them.
It's a good point- there are different agencies and even departments within agencies with different leaderships and cultures of how things should be done. I've also only ever had good experiences as an American overseas dealing with passport/embassy issues in general (although it sounds terrible for anyone trying to immigrate) but other agencies are an absolute nightmare. USGS is doing their best but I think it's going to take a seismic event to reform the culture in some of these places.
EDIT: Using "you" rhetorically, not accusing parent poster.
I actually have heard of this, despite not witnessing it much. Dark side of the moon, but yeah...I guess they must have some way of detecting my vibe, like I believe in paying taxes, not only when rich, but with little regard for how poor as well, and have never met a single person who agrees with me...well in the Bible yes, Christ paid 100% taxes. Just us two. Who knows if G-men have a way of detecting that, that would be so weird, like actually find a person who doesn't value the taxes they pay at 0%, which is identical to valuing the government at 0, and the work they do at 0, and even the help they provide you personally at 0 (otherwise you would value taxes at say .000001% of what you pay because that's how much is coming back to you, but that's my personal reasoning without any input from anybody claiming this, I've never heard an accountant make this claim), so I guess...if they pick up on people thinking they're worth literally fucking nothing in every way and in everything they do...they don't like that, and don't want to help you. Although they still help tons of people regardless. They may resent it though. And maybe if people weren't so tax-averse, but not just for what other people have to pay, but what they themselves have to pay (I've heard of this in Sweden, that's where I got these ideas), then the government would respect taxes differently because it's not as adversarial (putting myself in tax-hating shoes here, trying to see the moon's dark side from Earth with my imagination, because I sure can't do it with my empathy).
Now I'm starting to see why I disagree with everyone in this regard, little by little. Everyone hates taxes (meaning want to pay the minimum), except me. So everyone has an incredibly shitty relationship with the government (according to them, that's all I hear people talk about), except me. Maybe there's some link between those two things.
Note also if I choose I can reduce how much extra I pay unilaterally, I don't need literally anybody's permission to reduce what I contribute down to the near-minimum amounts like everyone else. Like if I judge that a government hates me with true hatred, I can develop the same hatred for paying taxes to it as anybody else.
The common denominator here is lack of competition. Utilities are regulated monopolies. No competition means no incentive to improve or provide better services at lower cost.
Last year, through a fluke since I ended up being away from my apartment for several months, I found out my gas company had incorrectly installed the gas meters in my apartment. Thus, I had been paying the upstairs neighbors' gas bill (and vice versa) for over five years. It took 7-9 months to get the thousands of dollars they owed me. And that was after basically calling them every two weeks, going through no-shows of their technicians, and arguing with them that they needed to go back the entire time I had overpaid. They wanted to only go back two or three years because that's only how much data they kept. Which fuck that, because after arguing about it, they were somehow magically able to go back the full duration of my account with them, "finding" the data. We literally hunted for a house and bought one in the in-between time of discovering the issue and getting my money. Can you imagine being able to tell some company you owe money to "I'll get it to you when I get to it, I'm really busy right now" or that "well, my records only go back so far, so I can't do anything about money I owe you before a certain time"? You'd be submitted to a credit agency and completely wrecked.
In this and more of these scenarios, it is absolutely the most remote possibility that you can act like this towards companies and the government when they want something from you. It really bothers me to my core that we have no power against companies or government. This is what it's like to live in an oligarchy.